Deepwater Horizon Incident Update #32

 Situation Update

• Navarre Beach and Santa Rosa’s entire coastline is open, including the waters for fishing.  Two links to live Web cams on Navarre Beach are available at www.santarosa.fl.gov/oilspill.
• A large plume of weathered oil was detected nine miles south of Pensacola Pass. The plume is two miles wide and goes south for 40 miles. An additional plume of non-weathered oil was verified through state reconnaissance data. The plume is located six miles south of Escambia County. Response assets, including skimming vessels, have been dispatched to the area.
• · Multiple tarballs and various pieces of trash covered with oil were reported during high tide on Navarre beach today.  Cleanup crews responded to the sightings.
• According to NOAA projections, additional impacts are expected throughout northwest Florida within the next 72 hours due to onshore winds.
• Sporadic reports of tarballs, tarmats and/or areas of light sheen have been confirmed by reconnaissance teams from Escambia County to Gulf County. There was also oil sheen and mousse confirmed in the Perdido Pass and oil sheen and tarballs confirmed in Pensacola Pass.
• · Offshore, scattered patches of sheen remain in the Loop current Ring with increasing evidence that it has begun to reattach to the main Loop Current.  Trajectories indicate that some of these sheens may get carried south, but observed tarballs fields are not likely to reach the Florida Straits in the next 2-4 days.
• Relatively weak winds (below 10 knots), low seas (below 3 feet) and relatively low rain chances are expected to prevail through the next seven days.  Winds are expected to continue out of the south through the weekend.  A possible shift to the south-southwest may occur on Sunday, which may continue to push portions of the oil plume towards the western Florida Panhandle through the next 72 hours.
• · It has been confirmed through Unified Command that Captain Steve Poulin, USCG Captain of the Port for Sector Mobile, authorized the closure of Pensacola Pass at 7:00 p.m. today, June 11. Boom will be deployed across the opening of the pass and the pass will be navigationally restricted during incoming (flood) tide as waters enter Pensacola Bay. The pass will be manned to allow access to necessary vessel traffic.  The pass will reopen during outgoing (ebb) tide as water flows out to the Gulf of Mexico.  Skimmers will continue working through the night.  The Intracoastal waterways will remain open.
• Perdido Pass will be closed with the tide to prevent oil from entering the Bay.  Boom will be deployed across the Pass at flood tide (water coming in) and removed at edd tide (water going out).